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Portal Vision Document
Introduction
An institutional portal is intended to provide a seamless, web-based interface to a
range of university systems and services. Key benefits of an institutional portal
may include:
 simplified sign-on and authentication to a number of different campus IT
systems,
 easier navigation of the local web environment,
 customised and personalisable view of the local web environment,
 better integration of internal web information resources with external
resources.
Institutional portals are currently under development in a number of HE institutions
in both the UK and the US - primarily student-facing portals. Many of these
institutions have developed their own software in order to implement a portal and
a large community of portal developers has developed an open-source (free)
repository of portal software. An increasing number of institutions are looking for
third party support for their open source portal implementations whilst the portal
software market has matured during the last 2 years.
At the University of Leeds, portal implementation is likely to be undertaken by
purchasing a portal solution, or by adopting an open source solution with
development/support undertaken by a well-established third party.
The University of Leeds Academic Services appointed a Project Manager, in July
2003, to oversee a 2-year project to explore the development of an institutional
portal solution for the University. The Project Manager will undertake a range of
activities, including a business analysis of the University's requirements; a user
needs analysis and evaluation of portal software.
What is a portal?
"A portal is a personalised and customised gateway designed for useful and
comprehensive access to information, people, and processes. While portals have
a rapidly evolving set of features and characteristics, they can be described as
personalised and customised user interfaces providing access to both internal
and external information. Portal content can include a wide variety of features,
information, tools, and communication devices". [1]
"An [sic] network service that provides a personalised, single point of access to a
range of heterogeneous network services, local and remote, structured and
unstructured. Portal functionality often includes resource discovery, email access
and online discussion fora. Portals are intended for (human) end-users using
common Web 'standards' such as HTTP, HTML, Java and JavaScript. In the
context of the JISC IE, portals interact with brokers, aggregators and content
providers using Z39.50, the OAI-PMH and RSS/HTTP." [2]
A portal has many characteristics, but essentially just one concept – that of
integration. Relevant information is consolidated together into one cohesive
page, or set of frames, as a set of channels. The user is able to subscribe to those
that they find useful and unsubscribe from those they don’t consider important.
What does a portal look like?
The screen shot shows what a student portal could look like on a web page.
What are the advantages of a portal?
As a student : Single sign on 'one stop shop' access to many applications, eg log in once
and then get access to your library record, Bodington, email, online fee
payment etc, without having to log in to each of the applications.
 Secure, personalised environment - giving you up-to-date information
relevant to you, eg your personal details, your module information, careers
information etc.
 Access to an electronic library, ie access to electronic databases, journals
and books.
 Search across many resources simultaneously.
 Clubs, societies and LUU news/announcements.
 Virtual communities and discussion boards.
 News and language channels.
As a member of staff : Single sign on access to many applications.
 Secure, personalised environment.
 Focus on research communities, processes and opportunities.
 Integration of online journals, textbooks and bibliographic data into an
electronic environment to create an electronic library on the desktop.
 It creates an electronic delivery mechanism to support our distance
education courses.
 Central file store for collective information.
 Service customisation i.e. the tailoring of information to an individual’s needs
will improve the learning experience and create a culture of personalised
support.
 Virtual communities.
Outline of the portal project
The University of Leeds portal project has one key aim - to plan for and develop a
University portal including the following key objectives:
 To undertake a business analysis of the University requirements for a portal product and
scope a detailed business case for a portal service.
 To identify and consult key stakeholders on needs and undertake a user requirements
analysis.
 To identify and prioritise the key areas for portal development.
 To review current portal products on the market and make recommendations for a
product that will meet the needs of the university.
 To undertake site visits to institutions currently deploying/developing institution-wide
portals.
 To review existing systems and projects within Academic services and elsewhere, and
identify potential for synergy, overlap and/or duplication of effort.
 To work with ISS teams to evaluate the technical options for construction of a portal
architecture.
 To consider how existing services could be integrated into the portal framework.
 To work with University staff to explore the role of content management systems in
relation to a portal.
 To make recommendations for staffing requirements to establish and run a portal service.
 Develop and implement a portal pilot.
Further information about University of Leeds portal project
VKP site (members of University of Leeds only).
http://vkp.leeds.ac.uk/Drive/gototeam.jsp?team=128062
Portal project website (external access).
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/leeds/newpages/portproj/
Portal web survey.
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/leeds/newpages/portproj/portalsurvey.htm
Student portal demonstrator.
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/leeds/newpages/portproj/student_demo_loginpage.htm
Staff portal demonstrator.
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/leeds/newpages/portproj/staff_demo_loginpage.htm
If you require any further information please contact Bo Middleton on x36386 or email Bo Middleton
References
[1]. Provosts on Portals: A web seminar developed for American Association of
State Colleges and Universities provosts.
[2]. JISC IE Architecture Glossary. http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/distributed-systems/jiscie/arch/glossary/